


Dawn of the Red Lotus

by nikoline3481



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Origin Story, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:08:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28185177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nikoline3481/pseuds/nikoline3481
Summary: Xai Bau's Order of the Red Lotus has yet to successfully come into power. Even with powerful benders on his side, he does not have the means to continue his cause against the White Lotus, the Avatar, and his Republic. Until, of course,  a certain someone shows up with similar interests. Will the anarchy finally have a chance?Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra. Both absolutely amazing shows.
Kudos: 8





	Dawn of the Red Lotus

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically just my headcanon/take on how the Red Lotus actually came into power long, long ago before Zaheer, Ming Hua, P'Li, and Ghazan were dedicated to the cause. Thank you, and happy reading!

They say it’s hard to get in an argument when you’re not on the same level.  
“I said hand it over, Zuzu. The throne is mine. The title is mine. Face it you never were and never will be fire lord,” Azula spat, her eyes glazed with fury.  
Surprisingly, Zuko just sighed. “Give it up, Azula. It isn’t what you were meant for.”  
Azula frowned, thinking of Ozai. “It is. He said so!”  
Her brother smiled sadly and held his hand out. “Come down from there, Azula. He can’t hurt you anymore. You don’t have to listen to listen to him anymore. Don’t you see, we can be free. Together, as brother and sister.”  
Azula scoffed and kicked at Zuko’s wrist. She balanced teasingly on the edge of the roof of the apartment, awning extending all the way to hang above the tides and the rocky shore. She smiled as she remembered back to the old times, when she was fourteen, and all she had to worry about was commanding petulant crew members who thought the ocean had the ability to dictate what a princess did. She smirked at the memory and scuffed the awning.  
“Come back to Republic City,” Zuko continued. “Come back and be my advisor. Come back and lecture me, yell at me. You can do what you want. Except kill people. But that’s besides the point. The nations, they’re different now. We’re sharing our glory with the world but we’re doing it the right way. Azula, you can help us. The people will need you. I still need you. You’re still my baby sister.”  
She faltered, her body going still. Her gaze, cool and calculating once again. She was thinking. And that was enough to give Zuko hope. He reached up again.  
Azula’s eyes moved down to meet Zuko’s. And just for the slightest moment, she softened, sitting down on the shaky metal awning.  
“Poor Zuko. Don’t you see? I can never be free. I’ll always want this,” she said. “I’ll never be free. He made me this way.”  
“Don’t,” he warned. “You don’t want to do this, Azula.”  
She smirked. “Once again,” she turned and whispered. “You’re wrong, Zuzu.” So she walked towards the horizon.  
The sun seemed to brighten, even as Zuko turned away, the salty water trailing down his cheeks. 

*20 years later  
Xai Bau turned the shiny tile over in his palm, glancing at the intricate detail as he placed it down on the pai sho board. His opponent frowned at the foreign object across from him.  
“I win,” Xai Bau said.  
The other man scoffed and flicked at the board with his hand. “That’s not a part of the set. You’re breaking the rules.”  
Xai Bau only smiled at the man. “Yes, I suppose I am.” He leaned back in his chair with measured calm, staring intensely into the green eyes of his earthbender opponent.  
The other man slipped the tile of the white lotus forward, knocking Xai Bau’s contraband tile off the board. He grinned triumphantly and held out his hand expectantly. Xai Bau rolled his eyes and slipped the yuans into the man’s hands. He watched, lost in thought, as his opponent leaped away like a fool.  
He picked up the tile from the pai sho board once more, rubbing the ceramic thing not without adoration. The black paint from it had transferred onto his skin by now, but he did not care. He continued to rub the back of the tile quicker. Onlookers snickered behind their fans and hats at the man who looked himself to be infatuated with an inanimate object, one that shouldn’t even have existed.  
But he continued his rubbing, only stopping to brush off the paint shavings every once in a while. Xai Bau turned the tile over in his palm once more. He grinned wickedly as he looked down.  
“Chaos is the natural order.”  
“Well don’t let me interrupt your intense love-making session with a pai sho tile,” a voice said from behind him. Xai Bau turned, craning his neck to see who had spoken. His stomach dropped as he peered beneath the slender figure’s hood.  
“You...it can’t be you. You’re-”  
“Dead?” Xai Bau gave a choked yelp, biting his tongue before he could further make a fool of himself in front of the hooded figure.  
“Forgive me, your...your grace.”  
The hooded figure stalked over to Xai Bau, lifting his gnarled hand to pry the lotus tile from his hand. She examined it for a minute or two before once again meeting the gaze of Xai Bau, who was sniveling at her feet.  
“Chaos is the natural order, huh?”  
“Yes, your grace.”  
“Word on the street is that the great politician Xai Bau is actually working against Avatar Aang and Firelord Zuko. I’m assuming I’m correct by the size of your eyes,” the slender figure said.  
“Y-yes, your grace.”  
“Get up,” the hooded figure snapped.  
“Yes, your grace.”  
The slender, hooded figure took strong hold of Xai Bau’s sleeve, yanking him to the entrance of the shady tavern. She pulled him to sit down on the shifty desert ground, the lotus tile falling onto the loose sands.  
It took all of Xai Bau’s self-control not to scream when the sands covered the tile. He knew who this woman was, how lethal just one word would be whether it angered her, annoyed her, brought her joy.  
“Your grace, the tile is one of my highest worldly possessions. Please if you would allow me to-”  
“I hardly think you’re in any position to be asking me things,” she interrupted. Abruptly, she struck out her leg, kicking at the man, pulling him so close he could feel her breath on his face. Xai Bau faltered, barely breathing.  
Her gloved hand caressed the side of Xai Bau’s face slowly, her dark gaze staying trained on his face.  
“You’ve been harboring a band of misfits, trying to overthrow the government, secretly staging a coup.” She paused. Xai Bau whimpered, waiting for her wrath.  
Straddling the younger man’s lap, she brought her other hand up to his face, roughly tugging at the long hair resting near his ear.  
“Oh, Xia Bau,” she whispered, moving closer to place a small kiss on his ear. But he knew what it truly meant. “Didn’t anyone tell you keeping secrets is no fun?”  
Xai Bau’s forehead glistened with sweat as he struggled to make word of what exactly was going on here. The hooded figure planted a soft kiss once again on Xai Bau’s cheek. The young man leaned back on his elbows, his brow furrowing in fear.  
Then, she sat up. “So, tell me,” she pulled out a dagger, confusing Xai Bau even further. A dagger? The woman set it firmly under his pulsepoint, pressing down slightly, just enough that sticky, warm liquid had started to trickle down Xai Bau’s throat. “Why wasn’t I invited?”  
It was not the answer he was expecting. He floundered for a minute, trying to find what to say to the lethal woman sitting over him with a blade pressed to his throat.  
“Your grace, I beg your pardon. We did not know you were still...in office,” he said.  
“I’m not. In office, that is.”  
He could not fight to hide his surprise this time.  
“That’s not the point,” she spat, waving her own question away with a flick of her wrist.  
“Whatever do you mean, your grace?”  
“What have you done so far with your little group of... anarchists, Xai Bau?” the hooded figure said, grinning wickedly. “I want to know everything.”  
Xai Bau cleared his throat nervously, his hands shaking as he raised himself up onto his palms. “After Avatar Aang created the Republic, so many people lost their old jobs, everything they’d worked for to get where they needed to be. He took it all away from them, from us. My father used to be an admiral, and he was moved down to be a landlord. A noble. He lost his job, he didn’t know what to do.  
“I got Chang, Meng Li, Weilin, and a couple of the other kids to join me in plotting a coup. But nothing is official yet. The plans are flawed, I’m too focused on staying under cover, and all of them still don’t understand everything because they’re only seventeen years old. Besides, Meng Li and Chang are expecting another child soon. Another firebender. I don’t think she’ll be able to fight. We’ve hit a stalemate. Forgive me, your grace. You may punish me how you see fit.”  
The hooded figure smiled once more, giggling to herself. “Oh, Xai Bau. Who said anything about punishing you?”  
“But, your grace-”  
“Tell me. Now that Meng Li will be...indisposed, do you think you’ll have room for me?”  
She slipped back her hood, the fire diadem still shining atop her head, the yellow glow from the moon sparking her familiar amber eyes.  
“Of course, Princess Azula. But-”  
“But what?  
“But Firelord Zuko and Avatar Aang...once they find out about this, once they find out about you! There will be chaos, your highness,” his voice cracking with fear as he spoke.  
She slowly leaned forward once more, her perfect body pressed up against the young politician’s willowy frame. Her hand rose again, moving forward to caress Xai Bau’s face. At the last second, a blue flame appeared, sharp as a knife, nicking Xai Bau on the cheek. He screeched in pain.  
“You’ve made it perfectly clear, Xai Bau. Chaos is the natural order,” she said, a soft growl evident in her voice. Xai Bau shifted uncomfortably as Princess Azula moved to sit back casually, as if the blood on Xai Bau’s throat and the blistering burn on his cheek were non-existent.  
They sat in silence, Xai Bau thinking for a moment. “And you-you agree? With our cause?”  
Azula’s face darkened once again, the moonlight shifting to a spot on the sand. A lizard skittered away, kernels of the dry ground twirling in a tornado of a breeze.  
“Face it, peasant. You need me for your cause to work. You need me to get somewhere. And, as much as it absolutely...pains me to say this,” she said with a grimace, “I need you too. I’m thirsty for some Avatar blood. And you can help me get that.”  
Xai Bau was too scared to try and tell her this was his group, and his cause. He nodded, gaining some of his confidence back. This would be like having a business partner, he told himself. He wiped the blood from his throat and held out his hand.  
“Welcome to the Order of the Red Lotus.”  
And the moon seemed to grin.


End file.
